When you are loaded, who cares what your pharmacist thinks

Before I go into a tirade about the population with a chronic Vicodin deficiency, I’ll do some preemptive damage control here.

If you are taking narcotics to treat chronic pain so you can live a normal life, that’s fine. OBVIOUSLY this doesn’t apply to you. Read, and share in the anger towards the people who are ruining it for you. Justifying your position with a 10 page comment is just wasting your time (we don’t really care to be honest).

If you are taking narcotics to get loaded because your life sucks balls and you want to get high, that’s fine too. But know that you’re a fucking addict and I hope your die a slow painful death for ruining it for the legit people. Don’t try to justify your position because you’re a fucking addict and we have tuned out the bullshit lies that come out of your mouth. Yes, I said the Addict word, get used to it. This site is not “politically correct” or “professional”, its Angry and realistic.

Pharmacists don’t think this way about all people, just the ones who make themselves stand out from the crowd. We call these PIA customers, both for Pay In Advance (ever see a legit check from someone who gets nothing but Vicodin/Valium/Soma? I haven’t!) and Pain In the Ass (read on!).

Its a known fact that the moment that a prescription is written for Vicodin and Soma, your IQ drops about 150 points and a black cloud of bad luck ruins your day. Suddenly your checks somehow bounce and you have cash for cigs and a cell phone, but not your copays. You suddenly are prone to leaving your pain pills on the bus, on vacation, in your hotel, in your (now impounded) car, stolen, dropped in the sink, excuse, excuse, excuse. You cannot do simple math, and your stories become so obviously made-up that they should come with a shovel. You call up obviously loaded out of your fucking skull to try and spoon feed us such the nastiest line of fake bullshit in an attempt to get your narcs early. Your entire family seems to suddenly die (which requires you to take twice the amount to “cope”). Half the time I’m not sure if I should just laugh at the bullshit or be embarrassed that you would think I would actually believe that.

I really wish we could speak our minds, and to be honest its getting to a point where we’re going to have to. Leaving your purse on vacation with your narcs in them should be a lesson to keep better track of your shit. If those pain pills were SO important to you, how would you even think of leaving them places (except if this is a crock of shit story, which it usually is). The words “too fucking bad” comes into my head, but I really don’t have the balls to tell a patient this. Usually these patients have small children! Small children! Ban Vicodin and Soma! Think of the children!

However, when you call, and you are so fucking loaded that your slurred speech sounds like another language as you give us this story (that makes no sense) to get your pain pills early; know that I’m going to write on the call-tag to the doctor “Patient requesting early refill. Will have patient call office to explain story”. Almost guaranteed denial right there. Pharmacy – 1, Lying Addict – 0. Lie better next time, don’t act drunk and/or loaded on the phone.

Who really gets fucked out of this deal are the legit pain management people. The people who are on-time, are nice on the phone, who are never early, and who are taking these drugs for the intended purpose. After getting fucked over by 40 addicts, a pharmacist cant help but be initially jaded towards the 1 new legit pain management patient. You may think that we are assholes, but if you shovel shit all day, everything starts to smell like shit after a while. Yeah, it sucks, however pharmacists (if they want to keep their license) are pretty much forced by the addicts to always have their guard up. Addicts fucking lie to get what they want, that’s why are they are addicts and not legit pain management patients. If every red car on the road is being driven by a drunk driver, and you see about 10 accidents every day involving a red car, don’t you think you’ll be leery of every red car on the road? Don’t bitch to us saying we’re “unfair” or “mean”, bitch at the addicts who are ruining it for you.

Plus, some doctors are wimps when it comes to putting their foot down and saying no to early refills. If a doctor tells me “do not fill until <date>”, I have no problem telling some idiot that I can fill it on this day. The crackhead may whine, and bitch, and even cry or call me names, but I don’t really care (it just gives me more to write here!). If the addict calls me more than 2 times regarding this date, I fucking boot them and tell them to go somewhere else. However doctors who are pussy pushovers make it hard for me to do this. Hard to be an asshole when our MD partner is a pansy pushover who caves in to every sob story out there (and believe me, I’ve had stuff auth’d early when the story was so bullshit I almost laughed at them).

But what really twiddles my neither-regions is when a patient goes “out of town”, and you call them at home 3 days into their “trip” and they answer. Holy fucking backpedaling. “Hey, since you didn’t go on your trip, can you bring those narcs you got filled early back to the pharmacy, they are due in a week and it looks like you didn’t go out of town” gives you the response of “uhh, I cant”. Yeah, CANT BECAUSE YOU TOOK THEM ALL ALREADY.

70 thoughts on “When you are loaded, who cares what your pharmacist thinks”

I have a question for you. Let’s say you have a patient with an established relationship with you. This person is on nacotics for pain management. They fill the pescription once a month, never asking for early refills or behaving in a drug seking manner. Then one day they come to you and say that they lost their medicine orttta they need an early fill because of a trip. Does the drug seeking alarm go off that first time, or d tehy get a one time pass because of the know relationship with you? I ask because I could see somebody having a one time “emergency” that’s legit, but I’m curious how a pharmacist would see it.

The best worst stupid story I’ve heard was “I was at the park, and I left my methadone on the picnic table. When I went back to get it, it was gone.” You left your methadone on the picnic table???? Were you serving it as part of the buffet? Dumbass.

Oh how I hate it when a script says “must last 30 days”, a call comes in 15days later wanted it refilled, you say “No, it says ‘must last 30 days'” *snicker…snicker…snicker…watcha gonna do now?* Only to have the Dr call and say “go ahead a fill it” Totally undermines the pharmacy, makes the doc look like an ass to us, and gives the addict all the power. What’s the point in “must last 30 days” if you say “go ahead and fill it” early EVERY DAMN TIME?

Yeah I know exactly how that is.. probably the most notorious at our store is a lady who likes to cruise all the local pharmacies under two different names and likes to both doctor shop and then proceed to forge/call in under those doctor’s names all in attempts for narcotics..
What gets me is she brings her child every time and as soon as we say we need to verify this prescription (which she’s heard plenty of times) she goes into super-defensive mode where she thinks we’re accusing her of forging prescriptions (not directly 🙂 ) and hollers about how she would never be so stupid as to do something like that.
When we call the doctor, they seem to think differently.

Thanks TAP. You took the words right out of my mouth!
I no long try to catch them at their lies. I take their word for it and document EVERYTHING. Lost med back in June, stolen med in March, Vacation…family emergency….etc. Well, all that gets documented and sent to MD (especially the pushovers) when requesting early refills. No MD so far has authorized early refills when I fax them a page-full of prior incidents.
Drug addicts, how stupid do you think we are? Legit pain patients, we apologize if we made you feel like an addict, but I bet that once the pharmacist realizes that you’re legit, you do not get that kind of treatment anymore.

Here’s one-I had a “minor” procedure done on my shoulderblade (mole removal) that resulted in 7, count ’em 7 stitches. Tylenol wasn’t keeping up (or was it advil). I called the doc to see if they had anything a bit stronger, I have a high pain threshold, but this was twinging to the point that I couldn’t concentrate at work. They offer me friggin’ VICODIN. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I asked if there was something I could take that would result in me A) not be stoned out of my mind, and B) take enough of the pain off (some is okay) so I could work.
Tylenol and advil in whatever the appropriate timeframes are.
My mom laughed-“Well, it’s obvious you’ll never be accused of doing/buying/dealing drugs”.
I remember being on Percodan for my wisdom teeth. Killed the pain (until I was stupid), but also made me, ahem, “HAPPY!!”, I swear I saw pink elephants. I lasted 2 days before bolting to advil.

It always amuses me that the only drug that ever gets “left behind” on vacation or gets knocked over in the drain is the narc bottle. I never have anyone calling in with a bp med or a cholesterol med that gets knocked over, always the damn narc.

“So and so said I could get it today.” So and so is a tech/cashier/NOT A PHARMACIST. I don’t think so.
“I’m going on vacation.” Two weeks from now.
“I don’t think I got the full amount.” Every control is triple counted and noted before it exits the pharmacy.

sadly, I agree with everything you say. what really peeved me today was getting a call from the local competitor chain to transfer a script for lortab that was just filled 2 days ago for cash. needless to say I didn’t transfer it, was reprimanded by a phone call from the patient who demanded to talk to my supervisor, and finally ended up transferring it and letting the other poor rph deal with it. i know what you mean about being allowed to speak our minds, dunno how we’re supposed to curb the addiction if we can’t do shit bout it. **sigh**
Makes me think of something I read once…
“I used to get high on life until I realized that life was cut with morons”
keep writing 🙂

Hey, good post. Yes Vicodin is a controlled drug. Not sure what the laws are where you live, and I’m not really sure what exactly they are where I live either, and quite frankly I don’t care. In the cases where the patient is an obvious abuser like the situations you describe above, I don’t care what the doctor says, I don’t fill the medications early. I’ve had doctors tell me to go ahead and fill someones medicine while the person stands there with a smug look of victory on their face. Then I respond to the doctor, I’m sorry but I can’t fill early because this is a recurring problem and it’s my responsibility to my license and to the patient to avoid contributing to a narcotic addiction. I can recommend some NA associations or Methadone clinics to the patient if you’d like. Ultimately, I’m sure the patients just get the doctor to call in the medicine to another pharmacy, but that’s fine with me. I don’t want that type of business anyway.
In response to the question above, here’s how I approach these situations. If someone requests an early refill on a controlled substance, here’s what I do: first I talk to them and find out why they need it early. second, I check their profile to see if they usually get it early or on time. I also check to see if they have other medications on their profile, or just ones with abuse potential. If it’s a good customer with multiple medications and usually gets the refills after an appropriate time, I’ll usually fill it early 1 time, but then I’ll put a note on the profile that I did this. I pretty much give them the early refill only 1 time. If they request it and I have already done it once, then I usually deny it if they request it again. Just putting in my 2 cents. Thanks, Mike

Wouldn’t it be easier if said “controlled” substance were to be made legal (ie, “over the counter”)? Then the junkies are responsible for their own demise, and the legit users are not judged and hastled by the pharmacists. Or would this then delete the need for pharmacists? Uh-oh….would you lose your job?

I was on military duty over in Iraq and one thing I learned is that Valium is dirt cheap and available off of the shelves in the pharmacies. No prescription required. I bought some for myself and kept it with the other stuff I have “just in case”
I wonder if military enlistment would improve if the army promoted “cheap Valium in Iraq”

VaTech, I work with a woman whose dog recently ate her Evista. I swear this is true. No, she did not request an early refill because she knew it wasn’t a life or death kind of thing.
I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but at my last retail job, telling a customer to go elsewhere, regardless of why, was a firing offense. This was not something that originated in the pharmacy (was that obvious?).

I hope the dog is/was ok, my minipig once ate a tube of salve with heparin.

It was a really strong one you only get with a precription, i was in panic, who knew if she would get an internal bleeding because of 200g salve?

The woman on the emergency hotline sounded disbelieving..i mean..a minipig?

Maybe she thought i was high or it was a joke, but she did some research and told me that nothing dangerous would happen and that was all i needed.

Could care less if she thought that i was crazy. Minipigs are a pain in the ass with their curiosity because they are so damn strong and will ram or gnaw until the lock or door is destroyed and they can rummage through the stuff there.

You pharmacists make me sick!! I am a genuine pain patient, I bust my shoulder 4 years ago and am in constant pain, i need my morphine or I cant use my arm properly. It also makes me and my girlfriend feel good, if we take to many and come in early, thats my decision not yours. I am not an addict, I am severely depressed and if I stop taking them, it makes me sick, you have a duty of care to make sure I get enough to keep us both happy. If you refuse to give me my supply early, you are being inhumane and forcing us to suffer, and I will make sure you are punished. Also, stop phoning the other pharmacies and doctors about me, this is a gross violation of my privacy and human rights, and one of my doctors now refuses to prescribe me my morphine. Thanks a lot you c##t!!
This is your last warning, you have no right to interfere with my life like this and you will suffer consequences if you do.
Yours (name removed obviously)
Now this sounds like me making stuff up to flame your website, but this is almost word for word a letter I recieved from one of my patients a few months ago. I felt so sorry for him that I definately did not forward this letter on to all the doctors and pharmacies in the area, along with the local drug enforcement officer.
He has disappeared from the area now, after he was arrested and the idiots bailed him.

I had a call one Friday Morning a few years back…some guy’s Vicodin had been “stolen” the previous Friday. The story went on and on “blah, blah, blah, blah.” I think he even told me what clothes he was wearing at the time,lol. He said he’d been trying to do without, coping with the pain with his other “stuff” but it was just killing him–could I help him out?
I pointed out that he’d paid & signed for the Rx on the Monday of the current week…making last Friday’s theft “somewhat difficult.” He hung up the phone.
A few hours later, he calls back demanding that I “replace” the stolen goods…claiming it’s my “responsibility.” He told me he’d gone over the events of the past week, and my records were wrong. (all transactions electronic, including a digital signature pad, btw.)
He was swearing up and down that he’d picked up the Rx on SUNDAY. And now remembers they were actually stolen that same day. (“All the weekend days blend together” he says…I bet lol)
I then pointed out that we are not open on Sundays.
*click*
I’ve seen so much stupidity, that most of it doesn’t even phase me anymore…but, come on, you addicts, less creativity, more fact checking, please!

An 18-19 year old guy recently came into my pharmacy and said that we shorted him 40 xanax. I told him that we always double count and that it was noted on the bottle, but he was so persistent that I told him I would count our on-hands to see if our counts were off. Our counts were correct and after I explained that there was no way we shorted him, he had the nerve to look and me and say, “oh well it was worth a try”. I couldn’t believe it. People never cease to amaze me. Oh yeah, I haven’t seen the guy since.

here’s my response to addict’s letter:
hey sorry to be so rude, but the behavior you’re describing is something called ABUSE – and is illegal.
The pharmacists job is to dispense pain medications to people that need them because they can’t function otherwise – not to keep their addicts “happy.”
Refusing to give you your supply early is actually doing more good than harm in that a) it limits the addiction potential of the medicine; b) it keeps the drug controlled so that it is not easily available on the street; and c) it keeps the pharmacist safe from the DEA.
Maybe you should go ahead and see a psychiatrist who can properly treat your depression, rather than having you abuse your medication.
Next, yes we DO have the right to interfere with this portion of your life – that is our job. We make sure you get your meds ON TIME (not early) and that you get the right drug, at the right dose, with the correct directions.
Health care providers tend to share patient information within the healthcare team (this is actually LEGAL) to make sure you’re taking your morphine correctly and not abusing it to make yourself feel “happy.” Actually, you should thank the pharmacist who got your doctor to stop prescribing you morphine because you’re obviously addicted and could’ve possibly died from respiratory depression.

DeAnn: Making vicodin OTC would just result in more people blowing out their livers and getting on medical assistance. More free drugs for addicts while I pay a couple thousand bucks a year to manage my diabetes.
I can’t wait until I’m finished with pharmacy school and licensed. I want to take the hard line on documenting early fills and weed out the addicts from the rest. There are a couple patients at the store where I tech that call in stoned out of their minds repeatedly each month asking for their refills early. It’s most amusing when their stories change on the same day. Really? You lost your drugs on the train? Where’d you go to find a passenger train anywhere remotely nearby? Guess you left the state, or maybe was it on the bus like you said yesterday?

Yeah Deann,
We only want Vicodin as a controlled substance so that we can keep our jobs. Cops only want Heroin to be illegal so they have jobs. There is no benefit to society in keeping crackheads in check whatsoever….its just a scam to keep people employed. For the sake of humanity I hope you are joking, and not a complete numbskull!

Quit your job then you stupid whinny fuck. Or you could stop complaining and do what you are there to do. I don’t care if people take too much Vicoden,drink too much,fuck too much, or do whatever too much. This is a country where everyone over indulges so get used to it. You bitch too much and make yourself look like a pussy but I don’t see anyone other than myself complaining. But it’s ok, I understand. You are most likely a busted lookin’ punk ass internet blogger with no life, but I’ll get over it. Thanks for the entertainment boss. You must feel like a man.

One of the most disturbing things I have been seeing recently is medicaid/medicare patients getting pain scrips and then selling their meds for walking-around money. Basically, these are welfare-types who, in order to have cash on hand for Hennessy and ‘phat’ rims, will get a pain or psyche med prescription, and then sell the pills, usually to recreational users. These jack-asses actually think that this is an acceptable use of their benefits, since the government checks aren’t big enough. Talk about an argument for eugenics.

Ah, DAVE.
What is a whinny fuck? Isn’t that sex with a horse?
DAVE, my uneducated new friend, I’m glad you don’t care if people take too much “Vicoden” or skip too many English classes.
I, on the other hand, have to care, because I take care of the addicts down at the methadone clinic. (Most of whom know how to spell Vicodin correctly. Go figure.)
The TAP may or may not be a “busted lookin’ punk ass internet blogger with no life,” but he is the dude what has the drugs. And the last laugh, ultimately, is all his. I suspect he does indeed feel like a man, or at least an adult human being with the moxie to do his job correctly and stand up for what he thinks is the right thing to do.

One of my favorite doctors will test for Oxycontin during the routine blood work of his Oxycontin patients. If there’s no Oxycontin or way too much, he stops writing prescriptions for it. There were a lot of his elderly Medicaid recipients who were selling the Oxycontin. Oh, but they’re on a “fixed income,” so it’s not wrong when they do it. 😉

DAVE said, “Or you could stop complaining and do what you are there to do. I don’t care if people take too much Vicoden”
Part of what a pharmacist is “there to do” is make sure people don’t freaking kill themselves and don’t do something illegal that gets our asses in trouble, too. And you better start caring if people take too much Vicodin, because acetaminophen overdose is by far the leading cause of liver failure in this country, and guess who almost always foots the bill for the unbelievably-expensive hospital stay, non-working recovery time, and tens of thousands of dollars in medication these people need when they take too much Vicodin and fry their livers out. And how about when someone has cancer of the liver and can’t get a donor organ in time because some dirtbag who fried their own liver out on purpose is higher on the list? Your right to swing your fist around ends before it reaches my nose.

Hey Dave … I’d probably agree with you… what people do with their personal lives is their own business. When people go out of their way to annihilate their own brain cells, they often take some innocent bystander with them, or they’re a huge drain on society. You drink too much and kill someone if you drive drunk… that’s a problem. Take too much vicodin, wind up in the overworked ER at the taxpayers expence, that’s a problem. Fuck too much, hopefully you use some birth control, if not, then you have too many kids that you can’t take care of and you and the kids wind up draining the system on welfare.
People who indulge in risky behaviour wouldn’t be as big of a problem if they kept their shit to themselves. But unfortunately, they are a huge drain on the people around them and society at large.

Ok so I’m in nursing school and to support myself at the moment I am a tech at the busiest pharmacy in our district.. and I just have to say.. you must be my other half. My manager laughed and said wow your words put on a web page..

Is this Dave the same as the Doctor Dave who recently forgot his douche after giving TAP such an unwarranted assfucking? Sounds like the same intellectual level as that other idiot who specializes in getting “20 calls a day” about his scripts and spends his spare time giving blow jobs to goats.
Hang in there TAP – most of us KNOW that you are right!
On the topic of making hydrocodone an OTC, I have always thought that we should make all that stuff legal and available over the counter – at a 100% tax level. If one were to purchase it via a legitimate prescription, then it would be government subsidized (since it would be medically necessary and indicated) and that subsidy would be paid for by the 100% tax on all the residents of Vicodinland. Also, the residents of Vicodinland would soon place themselves beyond the care of all physicians, unless they also happen to be ordained ministers, and would make the atmosphere for the rest of us much easier. Or the OTC “customers” (sorry, can’t bring myself to call them “patients”) could also appear on national television with Dr. Douche Dave, and this one too, giving blow jobs to goats as part of their Vicodinland OTC access fees.
It will never happen, of course, but I can dare to dream….

As a fellow WAG slave myself, I must agree with my colleague. I agree that this is a free country, but people here like Dave, ruin it for the rest of us with your ignorance and stupidity. Here’s an idea for you Dave. Spend some time at your local hospital, or better yet, one in a busy city, and count the number of crack addicts, coke heads, heroin addicts that literally almost kill themselves from an overdose and often lie in an Intensive Care bed for almost 2 weeks. And at whose cost?? Why not the patient’s. OH wait….taxpayers foot the bill b/c the addict of course as no insurance…or a job, to afford insurance b/c they blow all their money up their nose or shoot it up their vein. But do they give one flying shit? No…b/c they just want that high. So if I can save, one person…well one drug-deal then I did my job for the day.

You haven’t seen “loaded” until you’ve worked a Saturday morning at a VA outpatient pharmacy.
We have a plethora addicts who roll into the pharmacy at the ass-crack of dawn. This is AFTER they’ve brow-beaten the pussy doc who doesn’t want to deal with the bullshit and sends ’em downstairs to us for early refills of assorted CII’s.
While the drug-seekers are arguing with the pharmacist… ( I NEED MY MORPHINE BECAUSE: I DROPPED MY PILLS IN THE TOILET/I LEFT THEM ON THE BUS/THE PIXIES CAME IN THE NIGHT AND TOOK IT AWAY…etc…etc…) one of my duties as the Saturday tech is to wake up the methadone patients who wander over from the clinic to fall asleep in the outpatient waiting room.
The doctors don’t want to deal with the whiny, often belligerent addicts, so they tell ’em:
“Go downstairs to outpatient and tell them I approved an early refill on your morphine/oxycontin/vicodin scripts.”
That usually entails my pharmacist calling up said doc and trying to make him see that refilling a morphine script 3 weeks early is NOT COOL. It wastes our time, and the time of the legitimate patients who come in to pick up the drugs that help keep them ALIVE.
Yep. Must be pretty aggravating to the poor guy who’s been waiting an hour for the SAME doc to get around to renewing his BP meds.
What is WRONG with this picture?????

Holy Shit! Justadoc…I think you owe me a free consult cause I just fell out of my chair laughing my ass off!!
Really though, I think I saw numbers once that Vicodin is the number one prescription medication, and it was more than double the number two medication! (azithromycin if I remember correctly). OTC Vicodin would be the solution to the prescription drug costs in the U.S!
Seriously, I have much respect for ER docs as they have to deal with these people before we do!

The problem is, its nice stuff…
some of the best sex I ever had was on on and a half vicodin.. the trick is I dont fool myself into thinking I am taking it for pain, its recreational. I treat it as recreational, not taking it every day, using it just for an occasional weekend high…
it does make you happy, like a bag of chocolate without the sugar drop…
Perhaps adding something to vicodin that makes you have some negative side effects might help, but a little constipation isnt going to do it.
just like the problem with alcohol istn people who drink and drive, taking vicodin for fun and rationalizing it is for pain is a problem

My favorite customer had a script for 780 Methadone.. When I asked for a letter of medical necessity from her pain management doctor she told me her husband was a narcotics officer from the CITY of LOUISIANA.. not state, CITY.

*EXCUSE OF THE DAY*:
patient says, “i need to get my xanax filled.”
i say, “sorry, it’s early, u can’t – it’s too soon by 2 weeks.”
patient says, “well, my xanax pills felt into the cat liter box.”
ummm… i pause and then begin to crack up.
i was trying to invision how this could possibly take place.
WHO IN THE WORLD ~ leans over to clean or just randomly stand over the cat liter box w/ an open bottle of their xanax???

Not all pain patients are addicts and I am sickened that some of you lump us all in this group.These medications serve a purpose, the patient MUST take responsibility and follows directions,get proper diagnostic tests and try adjunct therapies to gain a better quality of life.Its not a matter of being pain free, it would be nice, but being able to go out and enjoy a day is a blessing.Now if your over medicated, then yes, you will be high and not be able to enjoy the day or get things done.Its a fine line, with some grey areas just like most things in life.Some of you so-called pharmacists need to realize that a few bad apples does not mean you need too write these nasty diatribes and lump us all in the same league.

Most chronic pain patients are NOT addicts. They are dependent on medications, which causes their quality of life to go up as opposed to addiction, which causes your quality of life to go down.
Genuine pain patients do not take more than is prescribed, do not pull funny stuff to get additional drugs, and for the most part do not get high from their meds and if the pain is relieved, have no desire to stay on those drugs. They are actually some of our most grateful customers.

In NY you are allowed 7 days early cumulative for the entire time you are on set dose of meds. I pissed my pts off by making it store policy to hold EVERYONE to one day early, no exceptions. After a few months they learned that sympathy is in the dictionary between shit ans syphilis and I wasn’t going to budge. Life is much better now. And I love the looks on the abusers face when they think the doc approved it only to find me handing them the bottle of tramadol the md switched them to. You’d think I just killed their puppy. hahahahaha, I love it. As for Dave, we are healthcare providers; our job it to help people get BETTER, not higher. Not to mention doing it while following state and federal law so we don’t get slapped with a 10,000 dollar fine. And for those that are offended by TAP’s post read his second paragraph you morons

Not all addicts are stupid, ill-informed, or uneducated. What really grates here is not the frustration or anger, but the sheer schadenfreude expressed by pharms or techs like Eric. It’s the fact that you endeavor to make addicts less than human (and certainly not deserving of compassion), that you wish upon them a “slow, painful death.” Shame on you.
Is there ever an excuse for addiction? Would you erase people like Winston Churchill, Lord Liverpool, or Sigmund Freud from history? I won’t even mention the list of famous authors and artists who suffered from opiate addiction; after all, you must know more than me, I’m just an addict! Which of course erases my huamnity, my capacity to love, to hurt, to do good in this world, etc. I am reduced, on your blog, to nothing but my addiction.
I could write my sob story here, but I won’t. Because you already know why I take pills! I do it to get high. It can’t possibly be that I take pills BOTH for legitimate pain and because it stops the night terrors, dulls the PVC-causing constant anxiety, etc. It can’t have anything to do with the fact that at age FOUR I was raped (yes, raped. RAPED. Penetrated. Wanna see the police reports?) by my mother’s boyfriend, which was just the beginning of a childhood so deep in the stinking shitpile of humanity that it is a miracle I made it out alive. But I did. And I had 10 good years. Ten years. During which I got my Ph.D. in Philosophy from an elite school, got married, bought a home, got a job/career, etc.
Oh, did I mention I married an investment banker? And that we lived in NYC? It was idyllic. Afternoons at the dog park, lunches together in Bryant Park…all throughout college and my twenties, I was ragingly anti-drug. I had seen what drugs and alcohol did to people. I never tried pot (can you say the same?), never drank to excess, never took anything stronger than an antibiotic, etc.
I was married to the love of my life, happy, young, and in weekly therapy to deal with my violent and abusive childhood. Life was good. And then I woke up one sunny September morning to the phone ringing. It was my husband, calling from work. He was at his desk in the Trade Center. There had been an explosion. What transpired between us that morning is private. I never saw him again. So, after I spent years clawing my way up from the dark, sick morass of my childhood, everything I loved was taken from me by terrorists. It is inconceivable to me still.
The year following Sep. 11. 2001 is a blur to me. A blur of blinding pain and shadows and disbelief. And then, I dislocated my shoulder falling down some wet subway stairs. And I was taken to a hospital in Manhattan and I was given a single Vicodin. I was so phobic about drugs that in the past when I had been given rx painkillers for this or that at the ER, I would hide the pill, slip it into my pocket or up my sleeve, and throw it out once I left the hospital. This time, the nurse stood over me and watched me until I swallowed.
My friend who had come to get me that night at the ER drove me back to her house in NJ to spend the night. We were about five miles past the Holland Tunnel when I saw a deer loping gracefully across a lawn in the moonlight and thought “Oh, how pretty!” The thought stopped me dead — I had not had a single, simple pleasant thought or feeling, not ONE, since my husband died. Imagine that. Try to imagine just for one moment what it would be like to wake up tomorrow and not only is everything you love or care about gone, but every pleasure, small and large, is erased. Enjoy some butter melting into your morning toast? Take it away. Notice a pretty girl on the street? You feel nothing. Stretch your muscles, but delete the “ahhh, good” afterward. Try to imagine your life as one long, empty slog toward an inevitable lonely death, where at least you will then either have no more pain or finally be with your love again, if the fairy tale is true.
Now you are thinking, “There are medications for anhedonia; there are support groups for grief.” To which I say, frankly, fuck you. Of COURSE I tried. I took the Prozac, I went to the support groups. The fundamental fact of my life is that it started in darkness and pain, it will end in darkness and pain. Or wait, was the child-rape and the 9/11 loss not enough? OK, there’s more: when I was 17 years old, I was shot in the face. I was visiting a friend, in a nice part of town, too, and I was standing at my car door, looking at her apartment complex when I heard some dirt and gravel kick up beside me. I thought it was a grasshopper. I loved grasshoppers. Next thing I knew, something hit me under my right eye, dead-on my cheekbone. Some kid whose absentee father had bought him a .22 for his birthday and blown town lived in the apartment above my friend’s. He thought it would be fun to practice.
There’s more. There’s always more.
My point, though, is that yes, I am an addict. I am unfailingly polite, I NEVER refill early (no, wait, that is untrue; I have had one early refill in the three years I have been taking an rx opiate and that was for a legitimnate reason), I am clean, well-spoken, attractive, and I am profoundly broken. With Vicodin, I can think “Oh, look at that beautiful deer!” Without it? Nothing. What would you choose? If you say you would choose nothingness, you are a liar.
I don’t expect a compassionate response from anyone here. It’s not as if you can hurt me more. I just hope that maybe the next time you are wishing a slow, painful death on all “addicts,” you might take a moment to consider that some of us are already dying a slow, painful death. In my case, one that began when I was four, and the man I trusted to keep me safe brutally raped me. Are you really going to begrudge me something as basic as a few simple moments of pleasure on my way out?

To PhD Philette:
I am truly sorry about all of the awefull things that have happened to you in your life and can certainly see how they led to your addiction. Some people smoke, some people eat, others take pills. I do feel truly sad for you that you are addicted to vicodin.
When we talk about pill heads/crack heads/addicts we are talking about the people who CONTINUOUSLY call in their pain meds/xanax/whatever 2-3 weeks early EVERY MONTH. Those that also come in and buy a 10 pack the next day…go to the “candyman” doctor every 2 weeks to get their soma/xanax/vicodin for a little fee. They are the ones who call 100 times a day to see if their doctor has faxed back on their refills and drive you and your staff crazy.
How about one of my most recent problems where a well known pillhead has sunk her claws into a poor not 100% fully mentally functioning man and tries to steal his clonazepam from him…or calls and says it was never picked up. I have watched his mother stand in our pharmacy and cry b/c she constantly battles with this woman over her sons medication. She is also the person that calls us up on the phone and says “So-and-so is selling hydrocodone” (this person is going to said “candyman” doctor) all the while HE comes in and says that SHE is stealing his hydros. So, let me ask you? why should we have to put up with the BS when what we REALLY want to do, and what we REALLY went to school for was to HELP people, try to educate them on their medications, not deal with childlike BS like this???
Second example, which happened yesterday and today. Ms. X calls in, wants early refill for hydros…I’m going out of town, yada yada. We fax the doctor. My super tech has a gut feeling and starts calling the other 2 pharmacies in our town. Guess what???? eventually we found her going to 4 other doctors (including a pain mgmt doctor) and 4 other pharmacies. You know how much time that took??? When you have to play policeman? then, you have to deal with the patient when they call/come in. So, she comes in with a new rx for valium for yet another doctor..so my partner asks her why she needs all this hydro, etc. she says she has a police report b/c her roommate OD’d on her meds. WHATEVER!! Do I think she really has some type of legitimate pain? yes, i do. But she’s gotten hooked in the long run.
So, all of you chronic pain people, once again, we’re not talking about you. We’re talking about these crack head people who waste our time. You don’t bug me 100 times a day, you actually NEED your meds and you do things right. You all do not bug me..but these other people???
We’re getting the bad rap here b/c we are told that we are not compassionate? I’m one of the most compassionate people but you know what? WE deal with these scum every day, not you. It’s our license on the line. Not yours. Period. The End.

to PhD Philette, what part of my post made you think that I delight in people suffering? I do occasionally enjoy squashing the dreams of addicts who have blown through 2 weeks worth of hydrocodone in 5 days and expect me just to say “sure whatever you say, btw do you want fries with that?” I blew out 2 disks in my back and could barely walk, somehow I managed with the amount of lortab the dr authorized me to take. This entire discussion is not aimed at people who are taking hydrocodone, it is about those that can’t get it Though their thick fucking heads that max daily dose of 8 means max fucking daily dose of 8, end of story thanks for playing, you’re not getting your shit from me. I may be unsympathetic but I am following the New York state law.I’m sorry to here about the tragedy in your life, but since like you’ve said you don’t get your fills early, this discussion doesn’t apply to you. I don’t want these yahoos to suffer, I want them to take their medication as prescribed and not a)sell it or b)take it like it’s candy. Hydrocodone is a dangerous drug and if we don’t do our jobs then we are giving people the tools to hurt themselves. And I will refer again to TAP’s second paragraph and the last sentence of my previous post; WE ARE TALKING ABOUT ABUSERS AND PUSHERS HERE, NOT LEGITIMATE PAIN PATIENTS THAT TAKE THEIR MEDICATION AS PRESCRIBED.

I am a legitimate pain patient. I have never needed or sought an early refill of pain medication. I was treated horribly by a pharmacist because the pharmacist “didn’t feel comfortable” filling my prescription of hydrocodone. This is after I patiently waited for five days while the pharmacist insisted on talking to the doctor who was on vacation. This paranoid pharmacist after accusing the doctor’s office of giving her the “runaround” finally issued my prescription but refused to list the refills causing me much grief and difficulty with my pain management doctor. Do pharmacists now wonder after having these kinds of experiences why we absolutely hate and loath pharmacists?
I have never had a bad experience with a pharmacist before or since this incident but it has forever colored my view of pharmacists quite negatively. The derision on this board expressed by pharmacists for their patients makes me really think giving so much power to pharmacists is really a huge error.

This post explains so much to me. 2 months ago I was leaving on business to Sweden for 3 weeks. I take Ambien CR and Lotrel. Ambien wasn’t my concern but the Lotrel was – and I had heard all these horror stories about DVT on long flights so I was really worried about my blood pressure. I was getting ready for the trip and had 8 Ambien and 15 lotrel. So I would have been fine but I was worried about anything happening to the lotrel. I go to my pharmacist and tell him that I’m going on a trip, worried that if anything goes wrong I’d be in a bad spot etc etc. I could tell she was REALLY annoyed with me. She says “Hold On”. She comes back and says “I can give you the lotrel, but the Ambein can’t be filled until ______” I replied “Cool, I didn’t want the Ambien refilled, I just wanted the Lotrel refilled early.”
She did this double take and mumbled something that I’m pretty sure was “Well that’s a first”. When I asked her what she said she just replied “nothing.” Then she said “Lotrel just isn’t one of those medications people come in early for” I said “Oh really, I’d think it would – dying of a heart attack scares the shit out of me” Half chuckling she said “Yah, people never seem to ask for stuff that’ll save their lives early – only the stuff that’ll kill them early” With the last word being a double entendre of sorts b/c the other pharmacist chuckled notably.
As I was leaving she asked me if I had any questions, talked to me about DVT for a few minutes and was just being a benevolent soul to me. I’m pretty sure upon retrospect that she probably felt bad for jumping to conclusions about my initial intents but I understand completely. I almost want to make a point of asking for Lotrel regularly just b/c it seemed to put her in such a good mood

The docs and pharmacists should just give the addicts whatever they want.. They can all OD just like a kid in a candy store would get a stomach ache. The few people the addict has left that care about them would actually be relieved;they would have to be …addicts lie lie lie
written by an old druggist

samuel…get over your problem with pharmacists. If you want your meds legally, your going to need to deal with them. Why don’t you also include in your comment the reasons why the pharmacist wasn’t comfortable filling it. Was it the quantity prescribed, the directions, the date…? There are many reasons and do you think they lied about the dr’s office giving them the runaround…or do you think they could do no wrong because they are the ones controlling your meds. Maybe you are feeling like you are being treated like an addict because you are an addict. Why didn’t you take the rx to another pharmacy? Burn your bridges there too?

I agree with all who suffers from chronic pain, all the pharmacist techs needs to stop judging people. If the shoe was on the other foot you would know what it feels to taking strong pain meds for relief. And yes very strong and a break thru along with it, that shows you my pain is very severe.Never abused them, take them as perscribed and written by a pain management doctor. Tried me on several narcotic from low doses to the higher up narcotics, the ones that did not help, I would turn them back in and get another prescription. Also get a pill count every month and mine always checks out fine. And had to undergo a random drug screen. This is how powerful my meds are. My doctor had so much trust in me, he stop checking my pain meds, the pharmaist never gave me any problems, my meds I take cannot be a refill written on them, have to go into the office every month for my prescriptions, always scheduled four days prior to prevent me from running out, I turn in the script in two days prior due to I ran out of my meds, had enough for my morning dose.I also use a pill container due to I take other meds for other health problems. The point is stop making look bad for everyone. I’m not a junkie because I’m on strong narcotics.Anyone the abuses there meds or do not really need them, it will catch up with them in the long run, goes for illegal doctors.There are so many innnocent people out there. If we need it we need it to get through our day and for some as I the pain comes back too soon, that’s why I need the break thru pain meds for. Most of you techs do not know what break thru means. Let them get there prescriptions filled and stay out there personal business, if my meds are refused to be filled 2 days prior, I will report you, then you will know the feeling reporting innocent people. Walgreens wil go far as filling them 3 days prior, I do not take the prescriptions, I don’t need them that soon. My Xanax I could also get them 3 days prior from another drug store, the only reason I get them from another drug store because the generic brand I can’t take and the another carries the brand I have no problem with. I have to travel about 20-30 minutes for my new pain management doctor, been going there for 8 months due to my regular retired. This pain management writes me out prescriptions for two months to prevent me from the drive every month, too painful on my back. I there were any sign of abuse, I would not be getting two month prescriptions. All the ones thats complaining about the narcotic abuse. Research how many pharmasist are fired for stealing narcotics. Make sure you think before you speak.

Whenever we can’t fill narcotics early, they always seem to ask “why not.” I always have to fight the incredible urge to say “stop being a fuck-up.”
So I was at work today, and a regular customer of ours gets 90 xanax called in dosed at TID. This guy is notorious for calling back to say, “There’s only (enter low qty number here) pills in the bottle.” So this time, I triple counted 90 tabs to be sure, and sure as shit, the motherfucker calls back in 30 minutes to tell me there were only 45 in there. I yelled at the bastard in hopes he would suffer a panic attack. He then said he would report me to the manager (which I’m sure he did), but who cares. I’ve about had it with this crap.

TAP – I’m in love with ya baby, and I don’t even know your name!! What’s worse than the fucking bullshit that these assholes roll in with? That they think I’m/we’re stupid enough to buy the shit!! And speaking of drugs that the crackhead reports leaving/losing/dropping/spilling or having been stolen, I have to wonder (not really) whether they might have been a little more responsible had THEY PAID FOR IT !! Or….wait…maybe they didn’t really leave it on the bus…maybe….Yeah. Been in the game too long….

And of course these bacon strips on the underwear of society have ruined any chance for anyone with legitimate pain to receive reasonable treatment. Been to the ER one too many times (with husband in law enforcment who, by the way-despises drugs–with kidney stones) and all but flat-out refused pain relief. So when someone goes in to the ER because they can’t bear the frickin’ pain any longer *** News Flash *** THEY PROBABLY WILL LOOK LIKE SHIT—people who are in agony LOOK LIKE SHIT– tough shit. Seekers that look that way all the time ruined it for ya, sorry.

shaqwete-
If you are a legitimate pain patient, take your meds properly, refill them at the appropriate times, and have not had any problems at the pharmacy, I’m not quite sure why you’re up in arms.
We’re talking about the folks that obviously have a problem and definitely need help. As medical professionals, we understand there is a difference between necessity and abuse. This is just a means to vent our frustration with the system and the people who ruin it for people in your situation.

By the way, my favorite excuse I’ve heard is “My alprazolam was in my purse when my canoe I was in capsized!”. I shit you not. This patient has told me this twice in 6 months.

Just another sad pharmacist sad he couldn’t make it in medical school and now tries to play doctor behind the counter. You people are pathetic. How can you override doctors? You’re just bitter because you couldn’t make it in med school. Give people their legit meds an stfu you dirtbag

I am a patient with multiple compressed/bulging discs. I had back surgery in fall 2012 as it had gotten so bad I couldn’t walk. I have had issues for the past six years and have taken pain meds to be able to function. For 5 years I was on the same dose (lortab 5/500). The dose slightly increased within the last few months (lortab 7.5/500). I have seen the same doctor for 13 years and have used the same pharmacy for the past 8 years. It is a chain pharmacy and other than 2 of the pharmacists, there seems to be a high turnover. The pharmacy will not refill an RX more than 48 hours early and i usually send in my refill request the night before I am allowed to pick them up. I ran into an issue 5 years ago when I sent in my refill on time (Friday) and the pharmacy only had 2 doses on hand. They would not receive their shipment until Monday. I could go to another pharmacy, but an RX can only be transferred once in my state, which means I would have to go to the other pharmacy to get the additional refill on the RX or I would have to get a new RX from my doctor. Now, in my state, you have to see your doctor every 3 months and sign a new contract listing the pharmacy that would be used. The contract also states that one can not use a different pharmacy. In my job, I have to travel for 3 weeks at a time with one to two weeks notice. I had just seen my doctor for our three month appt and signed a new contract. I found out I would be traveling out of state and would be leaving 6 days before I was allowed to get my refill. So, I called my doctor who ok’d me to get an early refill. The pharmacy refused to fill my meds. So, I have to get the refill of my meds out of state, using a different pharmacy (a breach of my contract with my doctor) and will loose the other 2 refills since the RX can only be transferred once. When I get home, I will have to go see my doctor to get a new RX. I have only asked to refill my RX early 3 times in the past 6 years and was treated like I was a criminal. I understand that these drugs have a high abuse potential and there have to be regulations to help control the misuse and diversion of the medications. Unfortunately, with the increased focus on abuse of the meds, those who have a real medical need for the RX are being placed in the crosshairs as well. I could understand if I had a history of trying to get the meds early, or went to multiple doctors or pharmacies. I have done everything I have been required to do without hesitation, but yet I am still looked at with suspicion when I bring in my RX or get a refill by the ever changing staff .